U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,741, issued to Richard A. Meinzer on May 25, 1976 and incorporated herein by reference, discloses an interhalogen combustion-driven laser in which simultaneous lasing occurs on two chemical species. One embodiment employs HF and HBr as the lasing species, formed by the reaction F.sub.2 +1/2Br.sub.2 .fwdarw.BrF+F in the primary (high temperature and pressure) reaction zone, followed by the reactions: ##EQU1## in the secondary reaction zone.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,217,557, issued on Aug. 12, 1980 to Kenneth D. Foster et al., discloses a subsonic HBr laser in which combustion occurs at low pressure and in which the HBr is produced by a different reaction from that disclosed in Meinzer U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,741.